A settlement grew up at Monomoy in the early 19th century, centered around the fishing industry. The community, which became known as Whitewash Village, reached its apex around 1850. As traffic in the area increased a lighthouse became a necessity.

Cape Cod's fifth lighthouse was built for $3,000 in 1823 at Monomoy Point, also called Sandy Point, eight miles from Chatham near the southern end of the peninsula. Like many early lighthouses in the area, it was a Cape Cod style light with a wooden tower and iron lantern room on the roof of a brick keeper's house. The lantern held eight lamps with 13-inch reflectors.

Engineer I.W.P. Lewis visited in 1842 and called Monomoy "one of the most important locations on the coast of the United States. Thousands of vessels pass here annually, amid the numerous and very dangerous shoals that obstruct the navigation." Keeper Solomon Doane complained that the roof leaked where it joined the tower, and that the "lantern has been so much racked by storms that it shakes so as to break the glass continually... The lantern leaks very badly in all wet weather, and is entirely out of repair." Lewis recommended that the whole establishment be rebuilt.

The present cast-iron brick-lined tower was built in 1849, placing among the earliest cast-iron lighthouses in America (Boston's Long Island Head and Vermont's Juniper Island were among the earlier ones). An 1850 inspection reported:

This is a new establishment altogether -- an iron light-house, a wooden dwelling, and a new fashionable apparatus. The workmanship to the light-house, I presume, is good, but it is neither large enough, nor high enough, nor stiff enough; for I can take hold with one hand of any part of the lantern and shake it to such a degree as to break the tube glasses on the lamps.

James P. Smith, a native of Copenhagen, became keeper in 1899. His wife died early in his stay at Monomoy, but Keeper Smith had three daughters who assisted him in his duties. The oldest daughter, Annie, acted as housekeeper and tended the light when her father was away. In 1904 a reporter asked the Smith sisters if life at the lighthouse was lonely. Annie replied, "Oh, no! We don't have time to be lonesome. There is always something to do, with the housekeeping and the light."

In February 1902, Keeper Smith and his daughters recovered the body of a Nova Scotia fisherman from the wrecked vessel Elsie M. Smith. The man's clothes had filled with sand, and Emma Smith said that he must have weighed 300 pounds. It took Keeper Smith and daughters Annie and Emma to pull the body from the surf.

With the opening of the Cape Cod Canal in 1914 and an increase in the power of Chatham Light, Monomoy Light was considered expendable. The light was discontinued in 1923 and the property passed into private hands.

The blizzard of February 6-7, 1978, cut Monomoy into two islands, North and South Monomoy. Today both islands are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. South Monomoy is a birdwatcher's mecca, with over 300 species spotted in recent years. Gray seals, rare in New England, have been breeding on South Monomoy.

The Cape Cod Musuem of Natural History has offered hikes to the lighthouse and overnight stays in the past, but the programs have been discontinued. Presently, the best way to visit is via the Monomoy Island Ferry. A rather strenuous walk is necessary to reach the lighthouse.

In November 2009, it was announced that $1.5 million in 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds would be used to restore the lighthouse and keeper's house. The contract is expected to go out for bid in the early part of 2010.

You can read much more about this lighthouse in the book The Lighthouses of Massachusetts by Jeremy D'Entremont.